There’s a part of me that believes that the Gates are, in their own way and by their own lights well-meaning, but also extremely blinkered and prey as well to charlatans. After all, the more successful the individual, the more susceptible to flattery and blandishment–that seems to be a constant through history.
On the other hand, the Gates exemplify the way that the right wing’s destruction of the public sector in this country has opened the floodgates to inappropriate intervention into public policy by private individuals who operate without any accountability whatsoever. It’s government by mogulship. It’s a flipping disaster.
What in the world possessed Bill to start paternalistically lecturing Bolivia about chicken production? Bolivia, of course, has told Gates basically to go S.T.E.M. himself, which is what I say to Gates and other moguls who want to turn public education into technocratic obedience training (with calamitous consequences to so many things, including the arts.)
Diane Ravitch on her smashing blog asks: “Wouldn’t it be great if public schools and superintendents could respond like that to Bill Gates? Something like this: ‘We are professional educators and we know what we are doing. Please don’t offer money to try out your experiments on our children. Please take your advice and your money elsewhere.'”